Dimensions and Weight now required for Listing to Show and be Purchased Internationally?

[arthuriris]

Hello-  a buyer from Germany messaged me that an item he wishes to purchase is not allowing him to add it to his cart (an error message pops up) and no shipping price is showing in the listing.  This item is listed as $18.95 flat rate in the USA and I recently converted all my listings from eBay Global Shipping to eBay's International Shipping Program.   Since the switch my listings are no longer available to be added to International carts.  To further frustrate him and me the buyer can not see the item in question when searching in my store but can see it when searching the main eBay platform itself. He says that not all my listings are showing shipping and purchase options for him. 

     Nearly all my listings have been flat rate WITHOUT adding dimensions or weight to the listing.  This was not a problem when using eBay Global Shipping.  However, now that i have switched to eBay International Shipping, the eBay rep tells me that to properly calculate cost to the buyer, that all listings MUST have weight and Dimensions added to the listing.  otherwise they will not allow the buyers to purchase them- resulting in the "error message" the buyer in Germany is experiencing.   I understand the logic and necessity for this but am confused that they were able to provide purchase options for buyer without this information when using eBay's Global ship. 

Is this truly a new requirement and something any of you are aware of?  How are those of you who used flat rate shipping but have variances in weight and size of packages managing to deal with this.  I can not imagine prepackaging all of my items to ascertain weight and dimensions and the nature of my store is that I sell a variety of items that vary in size and weight.  

Sorry for the long diatribe - thanks for the help. 

[pjcdn2005]

You do have 200+ listings that are showing that you ship to Germany with the EIS.  The EIS requires the dimensions and weights to properly calculate shipping internationally but afaik if that information is missing, the listing should still have a shipping cost to the countries that are eligible.  There have been a lot of posts similar to yours where some of the items that were listed with gsp are not carrying over to the EIS.  You might want to search for other posts on the selling and shipping boards about this to see if other posters have been able to solve the problem.   Here is an example of one of those threads:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Shipping/EIS-issues/m-p/33592278#M441267

To test if it really is the dimension issue you can add the dimensions to a couple of listings that currently do not show the EIS.   If you aren't sure how to tell which ones have the EIS, go to the shipping and payment tab in one of your active listings, change your location to another country such as the UK, click on see rates. Then click on 'see other listings'.  If you are sorting with lowest price plus shipping, the non EIS listings will be at the end of your list.

[martin2001]

WHy would ebay requires dimensions when you use flat rate? That is strange. Does the same thing happen with other EU countries?

One reason, although perhaps unlikely, is that you may be missing the LUCID number for Germany. If you have not entered it into your ebay settings, ebay automatically makes your items unavailable to Germany, because without the LUCID number it is illegal to ship there.  There is lot of info about that number. I got it quite easily and entered it into ebay settings. Ebay has more info about it:

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/extended-producer-responsibility-business-sellers/german-packaging...

[pjcdn2005]

The weight and dimensions are for the carrier used after the package reaches the Illinois shipping Center,  

[stuff4divas]

@arthuriris 

i've shipped 4 items using ebay int'l shipping and the weight and dimensions are only required when the domestic shipping label is created to go to your local ebay consolidation center.

there is no option to put the weight and dimensions onto the shipping info when the listing is created if u r using ebay int'l shipping.

you may have a different problem when shipping to Germany if u did not comply with the German Packaging Act.

here is that link>   https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/extended-producer-responsibility-business-sellers/german-packagi...

[wastingtime101]

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@martin2001 wrote:

One reason, although perhaps unlikely, is that you may be missing the LUCID number for Germany. If you have not entered it into your ebay settings, ebay automatically makes your items unavailable to Germany, because without the LUCID number it is illegal to ship there.  There is lot of info about that number. I got it quite easily and entered it into ebay settings. Ebay has more info about it:

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/extended-producer-responsibility-business-sellers/german-packaging...

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If the seller used EIS then eBay takes care of all countries with packaging acts (Germany, France, etc). No need for sellers to register a LUCID number when using EIS.

[wastingtime101]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

The EIS requires the dimensions and weights to properly calculate shipping internationally but afaik if that information is missing, the listing should still have a shipping cost to the countries that are eligible. 

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Correct. When sellers using flat rate domestic shipping don't enter dimensions and/or weight, EIS will use estimated/average numbers based on category. This can mean the buyer is overcharged (or undercharged) in many cases, and it can also create issues if the seller's package is over the allowable dimensions/weight.

So no, it's not required for sellers to enter dims/weight when offering flat rate domestic shipping, but if they're opted in to EIS it is advisable to always fill those fields with accurate info. The EIS team has stressed the importance of including this information.